Belle Wong: writer, reader, creativity junkie

Tag Archives: Patricia Cornwell

I really wanted to like this latest Kay Scarpetta novel, and for the first little while, I thought maybe we really were back to the focus of the earlier Scarpetta novels, with their forensics-driven crime plots.

But, rather unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with Depraved Heart. While the crime Kay is investigating at the start of the book sounds pretty interesting to me, it’s not particularly riveting for Kay. And sooner rather than later we’re back to the threat of harm to Kay and to those that Kay loves (ie Lucy).

When I’m watching a TV crime series, I’ve never been particularly fond of those season-long story arcs, the ones that are supposed to build suspense in between the monster-of-the-week themes and keep the viewer coming back for more. Truth be told, it’s each week’s mystery as well as the development of the relationships among the main characters that keeps me coming back. I’ve just never been all that interested in those big, conspiracy-laden, main-character-as-the-target story arcs. When I’m doing catch-up by binge watching a crime show on Netflix, I will sometimes actually skip those episodes that focus on those big story arcs.

So it’s not any surprise that I’m not fond of them in the pages of a series I like, either. In this case, the bulk of the novel focuses on the same kind of bigger-than-life plot, and when you combine it with all of the Kay’s introspection (and there’s a ton of that), it’s just not the right read for me.

True, this series has been travelling down this particular road for the past few books, but I do keep hoping.

And if Kay Scarpetta finally does get back to those forensic mysteries that originally launched the Scarpetta series, though? Count me in!

And thank you to TLC Book Toursfor providing me with a review copy of this book.

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I'm a writer, avid reader, artist-at-heart & book indexer. I blog about writing, books, art, creativity, spirituality, & the power of the imagination. Oh, and I like to write stuff about life in general, too!

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." - Stephen King

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